I love Guitar Hero, but I confess I did not played it much when it was at it’s heights. None of my friends had a guitar controller and at the time their were somewhat expensive and I guess we do not appreciated it that much back then. We played games with a regular controller mostly, that’s it. Then I got some wireless Les Paul controllers for PS3. I remember guys complaining of lag at one of my parties (probably my birthday). At some point I’ve started instigating what are actually good controllers. It did not take long to figure out that wired controllers are most reliable and Guitar Hero Xplorer Guitar for Xbox 360 is one of the best. By that time I also realized that Xbox 360 is the best platform to play Guitar Hero (or Rock Band) games, since it had them all and also best controllers. I bought all of my current Xplorers when they were still more widely available to buy used. Nowadays I don’t see any Xplorers and most guitars that show up are somewhat expensive. Well I guess guitar games are getting new breath. The first guitar upgrade I made was Guitar Hero Mechanical Fret Buttons. This makes quite a difference in comfort and reliability. Then I got myself a set of Roland e-drums, but I guess that’s another story.

So what I found one day is a DIY Les Paul Controller for Guitar Hero that you can print with 3D printer and use with Xbox 360. The controller used is Pi Pico and it runs santroller. You can run it on a jailbreaked Xbox 360. I printed all pieces on my Bambu Lab X1 Carbon and it came out very well. There were quite a few parts ordered from Ali Express. I bought enough parts to build couple of guitars but so far built only one. It’s not that I lack guitars, but it’s more for a sports.

What I wanted to show by this post is possibility to make your own guitar when getting used one is getting more and more difficult.